Whether it's due to the hard drive or the upgrade, don't you think it's a little suspicious that within 24 hours of getting the new software that the unit went out?

This happens more than you would think when there hasn't been a software upgrade in a long time. You discover that the alternate partition(s) have enough bad sectors for the upgrade to fail. Almost certainly a drive problem.

I had given up until I saw Celusil's post & today was the first day I had extra time to make sure a call went through. After several partial calls spanning about 3 hours, I got the pending restart message so I restarted it. I got back all but 2 of my locals with 3.5d. I've just done a reauthorization & another restart to see if I get them.

I had given up until I saw Celusil's post & today was the first day I had extra time to make sure a call went through. After several partial calls spanning about 3 hours, I got the pending restart message so I restarted it. I got back all but 2 of my locals with 3.5d. I've just done a reauthorization & another restart to see if I get them.

great news, reauthorization is that a call to D* or how are you doing that?
I am still missing 2,5, and 7 in the chicago are. I still haven't done the delete thumbs and SPs that as I've read here may fix some things. But if reauthorization would work I wouldn't have to go through the pain of reinstalling SPs

This might not be the same but I had 6.2 software on one of my extra HDVR2s and several months ago lost my locals. I tried several time over several weeks to dial in and get 6.4 downloaded never happen so I gave up. Just last week I decided to dial in on all my units. I only do this a couple of times a year since I have no local numbers to dial into. To my surprise 6.4 was downloaded and I now have my locals back. So 6.4 is out there for download but I don't know if this is the same thing or not.

from what I understand and have experienced, it takes several successful calls and downloads to complete the package. Took mine quite a few weeks before it grabbed the final package. I would suggest that anyone who hasn't received the update to if at all possible leave the unit hooked up to the phone line until it is complete. I dont have a landline at home so I had to bring it to work.

If you did a "Clear and Delete Everything", then you'll need to repeat the Tivo's Guided Setup, which requires a phone call to the mothership.

You say this REQUIRES a phone call to the mothership. Is there NO way around this on a hacked (zippered) 6.4a unit? I have no home phone line and this old S2 hasn't made a phone call in 6 or more years.

From what I understand it does require the phone call. Do you have a friend or relative that has a landline or could you take it to work & hook it up to a phone line there?

Thanks for the reply. I am afraid you are right. I brought the unit to a house with a land line and tried dialing out MANY times over about an hour and a half. I used the method described in a thread from 2008 and put a local access number in the dialing prefix field. The modem is dialing out and negotiating the connection, but failing at negotiating. I tried multiple numbers with the same result each time. I hate to think that I may have sunk myself. The unit was zippered with 6.2 software, then updated to 6.4a software when I lost locals a few months ago. I read one message in the old dial up problem thread that said if the unit was previously hacked that the initial phone call would fail every time. That it took a clean, unhacked drive to complete the first phone call. Does anyone know if this is true?

Thanks for any help anyone can provide. The wife is pushing for a major upgrade to the new Genie system. I don't think she realizes what that is likely to cost... Four weeks ago I had six working tuners. I am now down to one. (Long story, but a drive had a major failure, among other things.)

Thanks again for the help. I have it working now. I just re-imaged the drive from a 2006 6.2 image I had on a zipper boot cd. I also had a copy of the old PTV upgrade cd and everything I needed to do a re-image and re-zipper. Then I reapplied the 6.4a slices so I could regain my locals. Everything is working fine now. It took the better part of half of today, but things are MUCH better now. I just finished applying the last of the 6.4a hacks. Now I know to NEVER do a clear and delete all.

In 24 hours, I went from 1 tuner back to having 5 working DTivo series 2 tuners again. I had one unit that had the pixellating tuner two problem. I moved that drive to a backup unit that had both tuners working. Fixed the unit needing to call out, 2 more tuners. Moved a 6.2a drive into the machine with only one working tuner and it is now a media server with a single tuner working. I am happy again and can once again put off upgrading the hardware... until the next malfunction. But that's why I keep three more old non-RID units in storage. When my old 32 inch tube TV goes out, I'll move into the 21st century. :-)

Succesfully upgraded my both my Phillips 704 and Hughes HDVR2 from hacked 6.2a to 6.4a in order to get locals back. Used slicer and downloaded the 6.4a from DVRUpgrade per the instructions posted.
Last thing the upgrade did was tell me that it was preserving my hacks etc.

All is working EXCEPT I cannot telnet the units anymore. Do I have to do anything different to use the PTVNET telnet feature?
Netgear FA120s show blinking lights BUT telnet connect fails

Background:
A few months ago, I lost my local channels for ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX only on my DirecTV Tivo box. Other receiver was fine. I didn't have a phone line connected to my Hughes SD DVR80 so I didn't get the software update. Couldn't connect with the phone line but was finally successful after using the "096" code trick recommended by Weaknees. Software update 6.4a was installed, and access to CBS and FOX were restored.
Current problem:
After numerous restarts and a full week, ABC and NBC local channels are still NOT restored.

Succesfully upgraded my both my Phillips 704 and Hughes HDVR2 from hacked 6.2a to 6.4a in order to get locals back. Used slicer and downloaded the 6.4a from DVRUpgrade per the instructions posted.
Last thing the upgrade did was tell me that it was preserving my hacks etc.

All is working EXCEPT I cannot telnet the units anymore. Do I have to do anything different to use the PTVNET telnet feature?
Netgear FA120s show blinking lights BUT telnet connect fails

SURFBOY, How did you get the files from DVRUpgrade? It's been down for days... Any idea where I can get the slice or Slicer? It seems that's the only source on the net...

Background:
A few months ago, I lost my local channels for ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX only on my DirecTV Tivo box. Other receiver was fine. I didn't have a phone line connected to my Hughes SD DVR80 so I didn't get the software update. Couldn't connect with the phone line but was finally successful after using the "096" code trick recommended by Weaknees. Software update 6.4a was installed, and access to CBS and FOX were restored.
Current problem:
After numerous restarts and a full week, ABC and NBC local channels are still NOT restored.